“I told our players they have an opportunity,” he says. “Of all the great players who have played here, I think if you asked any of them if they could play on Sept. 8 in the first SEC football game at Kyle Field, they would all want to be part of that.

The mission Sumlin chose to accept, after four seasons at Houston of Conference USA, was to revitalize the underachieving Aggie program as it steps into the college football’s lions den, the SEC.

In Sumlin, A&M tabbed an only child of two educators, a walk-on Purdue Boilermaker-turned All-Big Ten honorable mention linebacker and a former insurance salesman-turned-coach of 10 previous college stops.

If Sumlin is restless about Saturday, he’s managed to hide it from his wife of 15 years, Charlene, and their four children.

When Hurricane Isaac caused the postponement of last Thursday’s scheduled opener at Louisiana Tech until Oct. 13, Kevin was able to catch part of 14-year-old daughter Shelby’s Friday volleyball match and the Saturday morning football games of 10-year-old Jackson and 8-year-old Joey.

“We always knew he was going to be here,” Charlene says. “I always knew it was going to happen for him, so it’s not remarkable for me in that sense. I just feel like it’s time for destiny to take place.

“Saturday’s a big one, but it’s where we are supposed to be. It feels natural.”

Kevin and Charlene’s parents are scheduled to fly in for the game. If any Sumlin gets a lump in his throat, it probably will be Kevin’s 77-year-old father, Bill.

In a telephone interview, Bill recalls the morning of Aug. 3, 1964, when he coached his Booker T. Washington High football team of Brewton, Ala., through the season’s first practice.

He then hurried to the local hospital, minutes late for Kevin’s birth. A nurse placed a football in Kevin’s bassinet, teasing Bill that since practice caused his tardiness, the sport surely must be in the baby’s blood.

Kevin was born eight miles from the Florida state line, in the heart of SEC country, in the “Colored” wing of a segregated hospital.

When Houston hired Kevin in December 2007, he became the first black head coach of a major Texas college football program. Now he is A&M’s first black coach.

“Oh my goodness, it’s just unbelievable,” Bill Sumlin says. “Because of where I came from, I never thought I would see this. Sometimes I look around and can’t believe it’s happening.”

Fresh start in Indiana

Bill and Marion Sumlin chose a new path for Kevin, and themselves.

Bill had been a successful football and basketball coach in his native Brewton, going undefeated in football the year Kevin was born. But with Deep South schools slow to implement 1954’s desegregation law, the Sumlins moved to Indiana when Kevin was 2.

While Marion continued her 37-year career as an elementary school teacher, Bill got a master’s in administration at Indiana University. The family initially lived in a trailer park for married students.

Ultimately, the Sumlins moved to Indianapolis, where Bill became a public high school assistant principal while helping with the athletic teams — and coaching Kevin in youth football, basketball and baseball.

“My parents sacrificed a lot for me, just to make sure they put me in really good situations academically,” Kevin says, adding with a laugh, “situations I didn’t agree with at the time.”

Kevin wanted to attend the public high school that most of his friends attended and where his father worked. Bill and Marion opted to pay for Kevin to attend private, 500-student Brebeuf Jesuit Prep.

The academic standards were more stringent, but at least Kevin could play football, basketball and baseball. His public middle school coaches had told him he would have to specialize in one sport when he got to high school.

Brebeuf Prep had difficulty competing athletically against larger public schools. Kevin’s football recruiting feelers mostly came from smaller colleges. According to Marion, Kevin’s academic standing was good enough to get him into Army and Harvard.

Instead, he accepted a Business Opportunity Program scholarship to Purdue in nearby West Lafayette. Boilermakers coach Leon Burtnett had seen Sumlin in high school and asked him to walk on, but Kevin chose to focus on academics as a freshman while attending home games.

“I think I can play with these guys,” he told his father.

Thrust into action

Sumlin walked on the following spring. He thought he performed well enough to make the two-deep roster for the 1983 season opener, at home against Notre Dame.

He told his parents and friends that he would be in uniform, which made it all the more embarrassing when he was left off the roster. He fumed in the stands as Purdue got whipped, 52-6.

Sumlin made the traveling squad for the following week’s game against Miami, that season’s eventual national champion.

Next thing he knew, two Purdue linebackers hobbled off the field and his position coach was in an animated discussion with Burtnett.

“He likes to tell the story that I asked ‘Who goes in?’” Burtnett says. “Someone said, ‘Kevin Sumlin’ and I supposedly said, ‘You’ve got to be [expletive] joking.’

“Actually, I wasn’t quite that harsh.”

The game was televised. Bill and Marion couldn’t believe it when they saw Kevin trot onto the field. It would be the only game of his career that they didn’t attend in person.

“I just remember looking up and seeing on the stadium, ‘The city of Miami welcomes you to the Orange Bowl,’” Kevin says. “Next thing I knew, it was halftime. It was all a blur.”

Sumlin started the next week and every game afterward, for four seasons. He graduated with the seventh-most tackles in Purdue history — but to what vocation?

A Purdue alum in 1987 hired Sumlin to be an underwriter at American United Life Insurance. He earned more money than his father. For a year, he was on a fast track — until he attended a co-worker’s retirement party and tried visualize himself in 30 years.

Without telling his father, he contacted Burtnett; his Purdue defensive coordinator, Joe Tiller; and ex-Boilermaker receivers coach Ray Sherman, one the few black coaches he knew. They convinced new Washington State coach Mike Price to make Sumlin a graduate assistant in 1989.

“It was really to buy myself time to figure out what the hell I was going to do,” says Sumlin.

Kevin immediately discovered that he enjoyed coaching student-athletes. Then came a pivotal moment. Price asked him to switch from coaching linebackers to receivers under offensive-coordinator Tiller, who was installing a one-back offense.

“He said, ‘If you really want to be a coach, learn the ins and outs of this offense and you’ll always have a job,’” Sumlin recalls.

A&M takes notice

Sumlin gradually climbed the career ladder, earning reputations as a quick learner and whiz recruiter. Three days after accompanying Tiller to Wyoming, he was dispatched to Dallas.

“I went to the Drury Inn by D/FW Airport,” he says. “It was a Sunday. I had a map, some names and a list of schools I needed to be at the next day.”

His career track took him to Minnesota (where he met Charlene), then back to Purdue, where Tiller had taken over the program.

Down in College Station, Aggies coach R.C. Slocum wondered why so many Texas recruits were visiting Purdue. When told that Sumlin was Purdue’s Texas recruiter, Slocum arranged for a meeting at the national coaches’ convention.

It took a year before Slocum, in 2001, had an opening and could pry Sumlin from his alma mater. Three games into the following season, after a 13-3 loss to Virginia Tech, Slocum replaced offensive coordinator Dino Babers with Sumlin.

“It was like daylight and dark,” Slocum says. “Our offense changed dramatically. Same players, same everything. Just a different guy calling the plays and directing the offense.”

The Aggies averaged 33 points the rest of the season. The 6-6 finish wasn’t enough to save Slocum’s job, but a late-season upset of No. 1 Oklahoma got Bob Stoops’ attention, leading to Sumlin’s next job and opportunity to grow as a coach.

“I’ve known guys who were smart football men, really good X’s and O’s theory guys, but they were terrible teachers,” Slocum says. “Your great coaches are the guys that can teach, and that comes from relating to the student. That’s Kevin’s strong suit.”

Building plans

College Station is a homecoming of sorts for the Sumlins. Courtney was born in Minneapolis, Shelby in West Lafayette, Jackson in College Station and Joey in Norman, Okla.

The Sumlins are building a new home, which like Aggieland’s new football era is barely under way.

“We’re hoping they’ll have some dirt down so we’ll have something to show our parents this weekend,” Charlene says.

Over the years, Charlene has heard Bill recount how his teams in Brewton weren’t allowed to eat in “Whites only” restaurants, and other racial injustices, without bitterness in his voice.

“He raised Kevin not to judge people based on the negative experiences he had,” she says. “He gave him the gift of being able to see everybody the same. It’s a beautiful gift.”

Bill Sumlin is trying to imagine what it will be like to see his son coach Saturday in front of 90,000 fans.

“He’s a football junkie, and he has us to blame for that,” he says. “But he’s a happy person. I see him now and think, ‘Boy, that’s just natural. He couldn’t have done anything else that he would be happy at.’

“I get emotional about it because one of the best things a person can do is work at something they’re happy at.”

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